


Sillicate Rhombus

by Velgrauder



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, MS Paint Art, Original Character(s), Original Universe, Unrelated to Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22962979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velgrauder/pseuds/Velgrauder
Summary: If you throw enough things at the wall, something ought to stick. Follow the Modulated Gems and the rest of the Gem Empire as they try to regain their former status in the intergalactic scene.





	Sillicate Rhombus

After a couple of watches all of Topaz's footage was stock, just a dumb gem in some flashy pants. Tourmaline's frown only went on to be more and more pronounced as the seconds went on (mostly due to that she was an all-around joyless gem, rather than outright boredom or anger), looking carefully in her tablet at the way Topaz's body of light changed each time she used it to propel herself around.

And while Tourmaline diligently worked, Topaz, our man of the hour, sat quietly, not too far into the room's battle arena. But rather than that being the sad picture of a lonely gem sitting all by itself, it was actually the sad picture of  _ two  _ lonely gems sitting all by themselves.

While the yellow gem was vacantly staring at the floor, Carnelian, that other gem, was wasting away fidgeting with her PDA. No gem dared to speak to the other, out of sheer ineptitude, of course. While Topaz was too shy to say hi or to whip out her own PDA to dick around (that would require for her to take off her modulator, which would be quite inconvenient for everyone), Carnelian was too insecure to show her whatever crap she was browsing in fear that their senses of humor didn't match.

That didn't last much longer, however, as Tourmaline walked towards the pair, tablet in hand. As she did so, both soldier gems stood up.

—All right, Topaz. For starters I'd like for you to propel, uh... just about anywhere that isn't my face.

—Propel?

—Yeah, y'know. That thing you do that... —Tourmaline raised her free hand to the air, as if trying to physically grasp the meaning of the word. After a lapse of better judgement she turned to her tablet, moving her fingers left and right until she found a decent piece of exemplifying footage—. You know. This _. _

_ _

—Oh! That. Okay —Topaz noted, dully—. Um, could--could you take a couple steps over there?

—Ah? What? Sure! Sorry —without any hesitation, Carnelian ran to Tourmaline's side.

And with the center stage all her herself, we now wait for Topaz to do it.

She gon’ do it.

Look at that! She gon’ do it! She’s gonna do it!

—Um, could you please not stare at me like that?

—Well I'm sorry, Topaz, but this is the only face I have —Tourmaline said, trying her best to hide her confusion on Topaz's request.

—Y--yeah, but--

—Besides —before the yellow gem could elaborate, Tourmaline continued—, scientific experimentation requires a great deal of attention to detail, so me “staring like this” —Tourmaline made air quotes to emphasize that— at you it's simply unavoidable.

Through the whole thing, Topaz looked away from Tourmaline, hunched and shifting in place, with a crestfallen look on her face. To Tourmaline it seemed that her words simply did not get to her. Or maybe she felt that way because she didn't know that Topaz just looked  _ that _ sorry all the time.

—Look, I know that stage fright is a thing... and that's it. That's all I can say to you, really. I've never really felt any kind of fright in my whole life, not that I have ever been in a situation where fright might arise. Besides, what would happen if you failed, anyway? It's just the three of us here. We’ll probably just chuckle at it for a second or two and that's it. Dunno about Carnelian here, but I certainly will. So, put on your A-face and... get your game on...?

_ Ah!  _ So that's how it happens. The close of a rousing speech grinded to a halt simply because of the sudden realization of the unfamiliarity one has with language and figures of speech. Oh, well. Anything to avoid malapropers, I suppose.

— _ Fuck _ ! —Tourmaline said once she realized that she thought about it too much and that now she would never get it right—. Just do it, already!

—Come on, don't be shy! We're all learning here, after all.

—That’s the spirit!

The social pressure was just too much for Topaz after all, who after a little more doubting about got again into position.

There we go! Atta girl.

—There we go! Atta girl —Tourmaline said as she noted the retort in her tablet—. Now, if you could just repeat that a couple more times.

Though Topaz's flip and propulsion was on point, she botched her landing by slipping on her blades. The yellow gem grunted when she hit the floor, saying afterwards after incorporating herself:

—Huh? What for?

—You really don’t know anything about the scientific method, do you?

She didn't.

Anyway, skimming over that, the Modulated Topaz's Flying Circus went on a wee bit more than “a couple more times.” Like, a couple dozen more times or so. More than enough times in fact as for Carnelian to question out loud why she was even there in the first place.

—Just hold on a sec. I just wanted to see how she went about like that in person. Honestly? I thought it would be a little more impressive —Tourmaline meant that with way less disdain and dismissiveness than the plaintext would imply—. All right, Topaz, you can stop now.

The legless girl was more than happy to oblige, botching the landing of her last somersault as an unwitting bookends of sorts. After noting whatever on her tablet, Tourmaline then turned to the _other_ legless girl in the room.

—All right, you. That thing with the energy skates. I wanna see that now.

—Energy wha...? — Though puzzled at first, Carnelian’s head then clicked in record time—. Oh! Okay.

Carnelian walked some distance between her and the other two gems. Then she did a quarter squat, put the face of a half squat, and started to make the grunts of a full squat. It was only when she did like so that red lightning started to flow through her metal shins, with red smoke and fire coming out from under the soles of her feet. A low hum and rumble started to echo through the room, getting bigger in sound until...

**_*BOOM!*_ **

After a small explosion that lifted Carnelian a couple of dozens of centimeters in the air, she then regained contact with the ground via a couple of red energy balls that appeared under her metal feet.

Tourmaline could not contain her excitement about Carnelian’s ability, her pupils shamelessly dilating and all that. Cutting the distance, she then crouched next to Carnelian as to get a better look of those crimson orbs. The energy skates glowed, pulsed, and flashed rather violently, with lightning coming out even after the fanfare needed to summon them. Like every other smart person would, Tourmaline grabbed her tablet's stylus and po--

—Hey! Hey! What are you doing?!

—Well Imma poke that, of course. What do you think I'm doing?

—Well don’t do that!

—Why not?

—Well haven’t you seen in your dumb videos that these things explode when pierced?!

—They do?

—Yes!

After some thinking, Tourmaline stood up and walked to Topaz's side; making Carnelian more uncomfortable than she already was seemed counterproductive in this situation. Once there she took out her tablet and looked at a couple of things in it. And then she whipped out a gun from her gem and shoot at Carnelian's energy skates.

— _ Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! _

—? —Topaz made the sound that question marks make—. What was that for?

—Just wanted to verify if her statement was correct or if the skates only exploded out of fear. And I'm pretty sure my gunslinging was fast enough as to not to trigger the explosion out of fear.

—Oh. And how do you know that the gun's noise didn't startle her?

—Oh, come on. Does  _ this _ startle you?

Tourmaline pointed her gun towards the general nothingness of the test room and started to shoot, a loud  **_*BANG!*_ ** accompanying each pull of the trigger. Now, I actually have no idea where I'm going with this but the point is that Topaz ultimately agreed with Tourmaline.

As the red smoke went away, Carnelian incorporated herself as she put herself in all fours. She communicated her displeasure for the previous chain events by looking and sounding like this:

— **_AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!_ **

—You're all better now? 'Cause I need for you to make those energy skates again.

The gem’s inherent and ingrained duty and desire to comply to a superior vastly superseded her blinding rage, so she did what she was told at breakneck speed (she still went all like  **_AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!_ ** while doing so, however.)

After some testing of the technique, which was mostly about Tourmaline telling Carnelian to go from here to there, and there and back again, Tourmaline decided that she knew all she needed to know for now and called Topaz to her side.

—All right, Topaz. Remember those times when you did, uh... this?

—Mmmm... Nope.

—Well, it doesn’t matter, really. Now, did you see how Carnelian moved on her energy skates?

—Eh... —Topaz was obviously puzzled by the question—. How so?

—The so is that I want you to collapse your body into a ball of light and move around the room a little bit.

Topaz looked at Tourmaline with an empty stare, but before long she nodded at her instruction, albeit still a bit unsure.

—Okay.

Without saying another word, Topaz made a handstand. Doubt was apparent on her face on the few seconds that was visible between this and the following action: her body of light slowly starting to spin and spin until she gained the form that of some sort of glowy novelty table.

—All right! Think you can go a little faster?

Topaz obliged with an unstated mood. The whirling sound of metal and electricity started to get increasingly louder with each additional revolution.

—Sweet! Now, start moving!

Topaz tangential and rotational speed remained unchanged. Misinterpreting it as her simply not listening, Tourmaline yell at her the instructions again, and then again once more and so on, with more intensity being built up between each consecutive shout. The spinning top that was Topaz started to wobble and lose balance in sync with Tourmaline's voice until her butt was once again against the ground, the sound of metal crashing echoing through the room.

—Aw, c'mon! What happened?! —the gem of science exclaimed.

—I--I'm sorry! I can't see anything while doing that, I was scared!

—Scare--?! Why would you--??

—Ummmm. Y'know what? Forget it. Just... just do the thing again. All right?

Topaz stared idly at the ground for a couple of seconds before complying. As the yellow gem started again to spin, Tourmaline compared notes in her tablet to what was happening in front of her eyes. As speed started to build up in Topaz again and lightning to lash out her, a vague notion appeared in Tourmaline’s mind--a growing grin accompanying that. With literally zero previous conscious thought, Tourmaline whipped out her gun and--


End file.
